Ruud Receives Chengdu Open Main Draw Wild Card

Casper Ruud decided to forgo this year’s US Open junior events in order to play his first ATP Challenger Tour tournament. Less than two weeks later, the Norwegian teenager has already graduated to the ATP World Tour.

The 17 year old will make his ATP World Tour main draw debut later this month after receiving a wild card into the Chengdu Open, held from 26 September to 2 October. Ruud’s father, Christian Ruud, competed on the ATP World Tour throughout the ‘90s, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 39 in October 1995.

“You have to take it day by day and I’m just trying my best every day and working hard,” said Casper. “Anything can happen, but I’m going to stay humble and just try to work every day.”

The teenager came through qualifying to win last week’s $75,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Seville, Spain. He became the fourth youngest player to win an ATP Challenger Tour event in their debut, joining prestigious champions including Michael Chang, Richard Gasquet and Jonathan Stark. Ruud is also the youngest ATP Challenger Tour winner since Alexander Zverev in 2014.

“Given his recent Challenger, it was an easy decision to give him the coveted wild card,” said Tournament Director Nick Freyer. “He was outside the top 1000 in the [Emirates] ATP Rankings at the start of the year, but his results have taken him to a career high ranking of 274 this week. [It’s] outstanding by any measure, especially so given his young age.”

Nick Kyrgios, Grigor Dimitrov and Pablo Carreno Busta are among the top players competing in the inaugural edition of the Chengdu Open.